The Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in a statement on Monday, 28th of November described the usage of the photograph of a former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke to represent its Presidential Candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as an honest mistake.
It would be recalled that Television Continental (TVC) had some weeks ago ran a documentary titled ‘Bola Tinubu And His Political Journey’, which traced his roots and rise to political prominence.
The documentary showcased the life history and political journey of Tinubu and amongst the documentary was a particular monochrome photograph showing some depicted as a young Tinubu in dark sunglasses, well suited, seated with his fingers during his years as a young boy.
Reacting to the documentary video, Duke, while speaking at a roundtable hosted by the Front Fort Media Initiative and the MacArthur Foundation in Lagos, alleged that, “The picture of the boy used as Bola Tinubu in all the documentaries is me. I am the boy in the picture, not Tinubu as they claimed in their documentaries.”
“That photo was taken when I was 12 years old during my school years at the Federal Government College Sokoto, in Sokoto state.” Duke said.
While Tinubu has come under heavy criticism for unauthorized usage of someone’s image, APC Presidential Campaign Council, in a statement signed by its Director, Media & Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, has exonerated the former Lagos State Governor.
In the statement released on Monday, Mr Onanuga said the usage of Donald Duke’s Image was an honest mistake, which did not have the approval of Tinubu. “The usage was an honest mistake for which all involved have accepted responsibility,” Onanuga says.
Adding that Tinubu or the ruling APC was not aware of the error, therefore, shouldn’t be blamed. Read the full statement below:
PRESS STATEMENT INADVERTENT USE OF FORMER GOVERNOR DONALD DUKE’S PICTURE IN A DOCUMENTARY ON ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU
We have taken note of the video in circulation where former Rivers State Governor, Mr. Donald Duke said his picture as a 12-year old boy and student of Federal Government Secondary school in Sokoto was used in a documentary to celebrate Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Our investigation further revealed that the picture in question has also surfaced in some of our campaign materials, on websites and Twitter accounts of Asíwájú supporters, along with a similar photo of besuited Asíwájú donning an Afrohair popular in the 70s and 80s.
No one and not even Asiwaju’s personal photographers and the artists who designed the materials, have been able to explain how the photo was mixed up with the other photo, that represents Asíwájú’s teenage years. They all said they got both photographs in Google search.
We have called Governor Donald Duke to apologize for the unintentional mix-up and the error.
The usage was a honest mistake for which all involved have accepted responsibility.
We want to make it abundantly clear that Asíwájú Tinubu did not authorize the appropriation of another person’s image as his own.
We also want to absolve the Presidential Campaign Council of any blame.
To the traducers, who have been attacking Asíwájú Tinubu for what he knew nothing about, we want to appeal to them to be reasonable over this matter.
We are in a campaign season where many supporters go out of their ways to produce jingles, documentaries, posters, billboard materials and other promotional materials without the approval of candidates across political parties.
The campaign council has in the meantime established a process for clearance and approval by individuals and support groups who seek to produce campaign materials for media use.
